OLDER AFRICAN TRIP UPDATES

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2003 Africa - Two Trips Reports - July and November

These reports start life as emailed updates sent home while we are in transit.  They are later reworded somewhat before being published on the Internet - to carefully respect the cultural and political sensitivities of the region...  To save download time, many of the images here are hyperlinked to a larger more detailed one if you want to have a closer look.  They aren't just a log of activity, but we try to offer insight into what we experience, and how it affects you.

17/7/03  Update #1 - Michelle reports...

We arrived safely in Harare and have a miracle to report!  Our and your prayers have been answered for the safe passage of us and the 20 Bibles and all the other resources we brought over to give away.  We were able to bring in the Bibles without any excess luggage fees as our (Craig and Michelle) around-the-world tickets allowed us 64 kilos each!

But an even bigger miracle is to be reported.  Harare is a lovely new airport with hardly any air traffic.  When we arrived we were out on the footpath within 15 minutes of landing.  Usually when people arrive most bags are opened and inspected to see if you are bringing in goods to be sold.  We have been concerned that the 20 bibles might be charged a large duty on them, even though we put stickers on them marked, "This bible is a gift from Holroyd New Life Church.  It is for free distribution to LifeLine students and is not to be sold".

Well when we were standing by the luggage carousel (for all of 3 minutes) an airport worker walked past who looked like he was on his way home (had his jumper over his shoulder).  Brian greeted him in Shona and he stopped (he was surprised that Brian knew the language after he saw us come through the foreigners' gate), and would even bother to greet him - perhaps because he was black.  He chatted with us for a while and we found out that he was a professing Christian.  We shared why we were in Zimbabwe.  Once we had our luggage, he took one of the two trolleys and told us to follow him.  He walked to the left of the customs section (which is a row of rooms waiting for bags to be searched), and said something in Shona to one of the officials and didn't even stop!  We simply walked completely around customs!

He then left the area.  We were stunned!  It was like having an angel turn up (Heb 13 style!) - especially after the warnings about what might happen with possible duty on all the Bibles, etc  Praise God!  He had a plan in place for the safe passage of the bibles that we couldn't possibly foresee or plan ourselves!

We are in good health and spirits.  We have had almost no jetlag (after no sleep on the 15 hour flight from Sydney to Joburg).  Brian and Craig were buzzing when they saw ex-All Blacks' captain, Sean Fitzpatrick waiting near us for his luggage; he was in South Africa for the Tri-Nations Rugby....

20/7/03  Update #2 - from Beira, Mozambique

From Michelle.  Today we went to church in Beira - never will I again complain that our meetings are long - this one was 4½ hours!!!  The people here are so eager to have God in their lives and they don't care how long it takes.  Here if they don't have God they have nothing, unlike us where we have a comfortable home with TV, one or two bathrooms, electricity, running water and all the things we consider essential like microwaves, washing machines and dishwashers.  Nor do they have a medical centre any time let alone 24 hours a day.

Coming across the border from Zimbabwe into Mozambique yesterday was the biggest culture shock of my life!  I thought Zimbabwe was poor but Mozambique is unbelievable.  Thousands and thousands of people live in mud huts with thatch roofs along the 'main' highway for 300 kms and then you reach the city which is just slum after slum.  The best area (that we are staying in) is full of ancient apartment blocks.  But many still don't have running water or sewerage services.  These people are so in need of God.

The hardest part so far was visiting an orphanage.  It became an orphanage simply because some children were dumped at the door of a pastor in his late 50's (mostly AIDS orphans).  He now cares for 32 children!  No Govt. program or assistance...  Brian and Elizabeth visited last year and left money for the roof to be finished on a building to house and educate them.  Simple concrete with a new asbestos roof.  No lights or plumbing.  The girls' dorm has just a concrete floor with old broken thin straw mats for sleeping.  That's it!  We could do so much to help, but at times, it seems overwhelming.  I could not handle seeing this orphanage - it is much worse than anything I have ever seen on a World Vision Child Sponsorship TV ad.

24/7/03  A few lines later from Brian

Craig and Michelle are really fitting in exceptionally well and coped with Mozambique very well.  Visiting Daniel and the orphans was too much for her and she left weeping.  That is so good to see…  Daniel has the roof on and the floor concreted in one room as a girls' dormitory.  The scene would soften the hardest heart.

There are 20 Methodists staying at the Base too, from Seattle, building the roof on a church building.  The place is overflowing with people, good coffee and all the food you could wish for in the US of A!!  We covet their mountains of food as we chomp on our stale bread and jam (with ¼ an omelette) for breakfast…  (is this "lust"???).  The Base ran out of water yesterday (Tuesday), but after a little chat from Comrade Loxley the Americans were much more conservative today in water use and we coped OK.  The water runs in the city after about 5.30pm every night, but not during the day.  These folks are very amenable and don't grumble.  They asked Loxley to speak for an hour last night about the Base here..  Anacleto now has control of it (being a Mozambique national makes it easier to deal with Govt affairs); he is doing a good job with it, and the photo will surprise you (if you have read previous reports) how much he has done in renovations.

We are in good health although Craig has had one of those "Mozambique" health problems.  We rebuked it tonight as he is in constant pain in his foot….  And today as I touched on some elements of spiritual warfare, etc, the birds Anacleto has here now (chooks, roosters, guinea fowl, turkeys) all went ballistic!  It was so distracting that we called everyone to prayer - and they shut up immediately!  That's not a spin-doctor report either, as you may well know.

We bought 20 NIV Study Bibles with us sponsored by members of our church.  They are expensive enough at home, but here they are unattainable with the crisis in foreign exchange shortages.  Loxley Ford suggested they would best be passed on the pastors and teachers of churches, rather than the students, as they are chronically short of good quality resource books and bibles.  So, we formally gave one to Anacleto Ferrão in Beira, in front of his (growing) congregation (picture right >>).

What a marvellous Body Christ has put together without human help or engineering!  We had a great time with over 20 pastors here  in a two-day intensive training time for local leaders.  It was very animated and quite a few were men I recognised from previous visits.  A group of pastors came back for a third morning to talk about current issues affecting them, so we sat out the front of the Base by the seawall (photo).  I love this kind of interaction.  There's so much more time here to flesh out issues without that rotten Western clock mentality hovering in the background.  They refuse to rush off to some other commitment as we do in Oz.  Some asked if we will return next year and do some more extensive teaching.  We need a good interpreter though, especially when we're teaching and discussing theological issues.  Guilherme (who has looked after Lifeline's literature office) is still looking ill; his wife was here with their new baby (she was pregnant when the last one died). 

But, the most rewarding moment was earlier this evening when a man called Antonio came to see us at the Base.  On Sunday, we prayed for many, many people for sicknesses.  This man asked us to pray for his 11 y/o daughter who was seriously ill with cerebral malaria (it kills people here).  We did so in faith, and he came today to say she had been miraculously raised up, fully recovered!  When he got home, she was out of bed, eating, her strength had returned, the signs of malaria gone!  He said in broken English, "I do not want to be like the nine lepers, but like the one who returned to give thanks for the prayers and give glory to God".  Loxley and I knelt on our knees with him, hands raised in adoration of a caring Saviour who cares for the helpless and makes them whole….  All I could think of later was how we can see these kind of REAL miracles multiply to see more needs met, and Joy Doughty's words came back to me again, "being truly humble is passing on to God all praise untouched".

[24/7]  As a reminder that this is Africa...  Tonight as we drove into Harare, we saw a car parked in the dark on our side of the road half across our lane (just missed it); then a cyclist being dragged off the roadway in the dark after he had been knocked off his bike (no idea how badly injured he was), and then 3 youths rob a woman of several things at a Harare corner and run off into an alley...  All within 30 minutes of coming into Harare suburbs…

The descent of Zimbabwe into 80% unemployment has meant growing numbers of homeless in the cities and towns.  The photo on the left is not a Christmas tree, but a collection of plastic bottles for recycling in a homeless camp near the Lifeline base in Harare.  It's worth a click!

And on the right - the Mozambique way of AIDS awareness.  You don't need any words to see the universal humour and message…  Men!  They're the same all round the world!

2/8/03  Update #3 - from Nyamandlovu, Matabeleland

Once you get out of the main cities, email is so slow.  Heck!  It took me half and hour just to find the Swans had knocked off Fremantle (first things first!)  …  Since Update #1, we have been in Gweru in the Midlands for a week of the Lifeline Ministry Training Program with a mixture of pastors and developing leaders.  What hits you (we are the only varungu (white people) in the township area) is the number of fresh gravesites in the cemetery!  Incredible!  Figures released last week said average life expectancy for a male Zimbabwean is now 40, and a female - 30!!!  Can you believe that??

We taught every day from 9 till 5.  We have a marvellous bunch of students here again.  Both Josephs and Addmore are back.  One pastor left home at 3am to get here, another travelled overnight...  The level of uncomplaining hardship amazes Craig and Michelle (and me too even after seeing so much of it).

The banks have run out of cash and this is making it hard for us too, as we have between us a total of about $A10…  Every morning the queues are back a 100m+ at the ATM's, and they get $Z5000 each ($A3)!  The largest Zimbabwe note is now worth $A30c (after 400% inflation this year!).  We are keeping our $US cash until Victoria Falls.  The level of kindness we have experienced here repeatedly has amazed me.  We are staying in Gweru in a lovely comfortable home while the owners are in Australia doing fund raising for their ministry.

We are 10km out of town and are the only white people in a township of 20,000+!  People are very friendly and there is no sense of danger to us.  Craig and Michelle love walking around.  We go for our prayer walk at 7am before breakfast. It is very high here (about 1700m ASL) and known for its cold mornings, and being very windy too.  Gweru has been quite a lovely rural city that has run down badly.

I am finishing this at the end of our third day of ministry here.  They are a great bunch and on a dirt floor with all our stuff dust-covered, we are still having a wonderful time.  The pastor's daughter (18) was baptised in the Holy Spirit today.  She is so keen to learn and grow. - and gifted too!  Michelle has taken up where Elizabeth left off last year with Ruth.

The highlight of our time there was praying for a child that has not seen or moved for several months, after a nanga (witch-doctor) put a curse on her.  His eyes were permanently fully closed and he lay in his mother's arms paralysed.  We bound the demon.  Two nights later the child was in a home group we attended - fully normal and playing!  Blind eyes opened through Jesus' name!  We saw God do several things in engaging the powers of darkness.  This made us very conscious of Jesus' words in Luke 10:17-21  the seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name."  He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."  At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. 

We travelled to Bulawayo this morning and are settling into the Lifeline Ministry Training Program here for the next week.  A Christian farmer built a school/hall/church building here (25 km from town), and Craig and Michelle are staying with him and his dear wife.  He is now President of Zimbabwe Gideons and is interested in what Michelle is doing at home in our High Schools.  But, Loxley and I had nowhere to stay.  Once again, at the 10^th hour, God supplied, and a neighbouring farmer (not a Christian) offered his overflow accommodation to us.  And it is only 10 minutes walk from the hall!  Thank the Lord!  I met a farmer today who had been kicked off his farm and jailed last year.  He is still distressed over what happened to his farm and all the workers and families kicked off the property.  His family had developed the farm since the 1890's, before the area was populated...

So, folks, we hope this gives a balanced view of life here and the ministry of Lifeline on the ground.  Loxley is turning 66, yet he is still happy to sleep in the most basic of quarters, in rough areas that others would maybe fear for their safety.  That's what happens when you are doing what God has called you to - He supplies sufficient grace to do it!  And be happy!

4/8/03  Michelle reports from Nyamandlovu…

The students here are a very different bunch than the students in Gweru.  In Gweru, most were pastors of churches (some small home churches, some larger churches).  I had many opportunities to get to know the four women, Molly, Eilet, Felicia and Ruth, quite well.  They are each facing unique difficulties and challenges and are each reaching out to God to see Him break through in their circumstances.  Take Eilet, for example (shaking Michelle's hand)  She is a widow of just a few years who has become a Christian recently.  As is the custom here, her dead husband's family wanted one of his brothers to marry her so they would have access to the estate.  She refused, so the in laws organised for a nyanga (witch-doctor) to put a curse on her and her family.  The result was that her youngest child (around 2 years old) became blind and limp.  When we met her last week the child had been like this for some months.  We applied the word of God, teaching her the power she has as a child of God to stand against the enemy in the name of Jesus.  We then stood with her and prayed with her and for her.  Two days later, I spoke at a combined home group and Eilet was there with her little boy - and he was running around playing on the ground with the other children with his eyes open!  I can now truly say I have seen the eyes of the blind opened through the power of God!  AMEN!!!!!

James 2 v 5 is so real here - Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?  The people have so little in the eyes of the world but are so rich in God - they have no choice - it is God or nothingI have seen more miracles here in 3 weeks than I have seen in the past three years.  And as Debbie reminded me before we came - we are all worshipping the same God in the same Spirit.  Let us lift our faith and our dependence on God so that we can all see Him at work amongst us more often and more powerfully.  AndWe have continued to be niggled by small things like bouts of diarrhoea and colds.

Brian adds - This restoring of sight and movement to the blind and unmoving child made us very, very conscious of Jesus' words in Luke 10:17-21.  The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.?  He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.  I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.  However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."  At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.  Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

We travelled to Bulawayo on Saturday (Aug 2) and are settling into the Lifeline Ministry Training Program here for the next week.  A Christian farmer built a school/hall/church building here (25 km from town).  Elizabeth and I stayed there last year, and Craig and Michelle are staying with him and his dear wife.  He is now President of Zimbabwe Gideons and is interested in what Michelle is doing at home in our High Schools.  But, Loxley and I had nowhere to stay.  Once again, at the 10^th hour, God supplied, and a neighbouring farmer offered his overflow accommodation to us.  And it is only 10 minutes walk from the hall!  Thank the Lord!  I met a farmer today who had been kicked off his farm and jailed last year.  He is still distressed over what happened to his farm and all the workers and families kicked off the property.

We hope this gives a balanced view of life here.  We do lots of walking (some by choice, other times by necessity!).  Michelle has already mentioned the constant health attacks we have had on us all along the way.  I (Brian) have been hit hard by a virus, and a dry throat (the humidity is extremely low here).  This has not made the teaching schedule here easy, with some 5 to 6 hours of public speaking every day.

13/8/03  Update #4 -  from Victoria Falls

We are on the outward trail now, after four weeks in the Lifeline activities.  So this update isn't very religious!  Since the last update, we finished the Training Program at Nyamandlovu (an interesting name...  Ndlovu is Ndebele for elephant (it's also a common totemic surname), and Nyama means flesh).  It turns out that the farmer Brian stayed with is a gifted professional painter and the house was full of wonderful originals (examples enclosed)!  The LH one is called "a shadow of his former self" and is a brilliant comment on the devastation that AIDS is having right where the farm is - farm workers are dying continually right here.  In fact, the farmer is planning to consecrate a cemetery on an unused area to reduce the cost of burials for the families.  He has also painted a well-known bicycle series.  Sadly, the subject is also now dying of AIDS.  Click on it to admire the immense detail Mick has put in it...

Again, we mixed, ate, and mingled with the 16 live-in students for the week, and taught on Christ's example of servant ministry and leadership, the elimination of discrimination in the emerging church, and the associated recognition of the work of the Holy Spirit in each believer's ministry.  We saw five students baptised in the Holy Spirit on Thursday night

I (Brian) had been driven out to a repossessed farm one afternoon about 25 km away.  159 groups of re-settlers have moved in, with little water, and introduced foot and mouth to the pedigree Herefords which are now quarantined and unsaleable.  I briefly met with the farm workers and their church elders, who asked for any Christian literature in Ndebele.  I was able to contact Loxley soon after and the Lifeline office will be sending them the Building Your Life series.  But, they are last to get priority in mealie sales - they are not re-settlers.  Most people in the south (Matabeleland) are down to one meal a day because of this "distribution differential".

Eight of us then had a brai (bbq) in a dry riverbed under a full moon (one small adder snake removed first).  Beautiful sight, only marred slightly on the way out by tales of leopards and two re-settlers being killed last year by an angry elephant.  I copped a tic bite on the face somehow, but it healed within a few days.

Into Bulawayo on Friday for four days in which we attended George Moyo's church yet again, where a wonderful wedding service / celebration took place.  What a joyful time we had!  And then caught up with Wadzanai (whom our church helped in her marriage last year to Moses - we supplied the lobola for several mombees/cattle).  He has gone to Ireland for work, and she has continued in her nursing training, topping the class in most subjects.  The other photo is of two former Lifeline students, twins - Dumiso (displaying recent wedding ring) and Sindiso.  Both are pastors with Breakthrough churches.

Sunday, Cosmos Sibanda picked us up and we ministered at his church in the outer suburbs.  We prayed for many people after teaching on the availability of Christ's provision, when we approach God in His prescribed way - through Christ's atonement.  There were many sick, and some demonically oppressed, not to mention the unending material hardship pressures they face here.  It makes you take the gospel literally!

Craig and I even attempted a jogging tour of Bulawayo's old elite area!  Gasping in the dry warm air 4000 feet ASL.  After a rest day, Cosmos picked us up from Zak's Place ("executive suites" at $A27 BnB for 3…).  The place kinda works...  Nothing works properly here, but it was comfortable…

We drove the 440km to Victoria Falls via Hwange.  There's a chronic shortage of diesel, so we bought some around the back of a service station in cans.  Afterwards, we found out the semi-trailer drivers steal it from their trucks, sell it to the moonlighters for $Z1000/litre, who resell it for $Z1500 ($A95c!).  And it was dirty.  Cosmos had to get the filters cleaned when we got to the Falls.  We met the senior minister of the Hwange churches who had sent five students over 300km to the Course throughout 2003 (5 x 2 week sessions).  He commented they had returned with a different spirit of cooperation and teachability that he had not seen in previous efforts to get them trained elsewhere.  Two were filled with the Holy Spirit and he had noticed the change immediately on their return last week!

When we arrived at Vic Falls, I went to see Sam (Reedbuck Safaris, whom we used two years ago), and he was able to get us a very amenable 2 bedroom unit right downtown for only $Z40,000 per night (that's $A6 p/p!).  So, we three wandered past the curse of Victoria Falls, the incessant young male (illegal) money changers, curio sellers, procurers, etc, and had afternoon tea at the Victoria Falls Hotel (of course!).  Pot of proper perc. coffee for $A60c!  At one of the premier world hotels, on one of the most spectacular terraces anywhere - overlooking the Falls gorge....  Afterwards, we walked out the front gate at dusk and Craig and Michelle saw some wildlife firsthand for the first time.  Within 200m of the electrified perimeter fence, we saw fresh elephant poo, warthogs, baboons, deer, and then...  I spotted a very large nyarti (buffalo) grazing 100m ahead, right next to the path we were on!  OK, folks, time for an orderly quick retreat!  Through the gate just as the armed ranger (named Respect...) prepared to lock it for the night!  

Today, Craig and Michelle have gone walking to the Falls and bridge.  At $US20 each, we (Brian and Cosmos) stayed at the unit.  They are doing the 2hr sunset cruise on the Zambesi today too.  And then tomorrow we set out for two days overnight at Sinamatella (in Hwange National Park), where the current reports are of lots of shumba (lions)!  And the next day, a full day into Chobe in Botswana.  Then, it's home for Brian, and the UK for Craig and Michelle, where they meet up with Anna Jarvis's family.

So, this is the holiday end of our missions' tour.  You can't come here for the first time without pausing to take in the spectacular nature of the Falls (widest in the world, at 1700m x 100m drop), and the wildlife.  We have seen some amazing sights and experiences in God's Garden of Eden here...  Click on the photo to see the large old male lions who turned up at dusk to look over the Mazuma waterhole for supper...  We saw another seven the next day in a pride (while we were on foot!).  Awesome, awesome...

A day trip across the border to Botswana and Chobe River NP was also a highlight.  Elephants doing their mud bath thing so close to our boat we could almost touch them...  (and not even Michelle was scared by then... - after being chased for 200m at 40k/hr by a very, very angry mother elephant at Hwange, it was all small change!).

To finish with...

We hope you have caught a glimpse through these updates of the very, very different lifestyle here, not through a tourist's eyes, but from people who are learning to "weep with those who weep", and "rejoice with those who rejoice".

It's been such a blessing to have Craig and Michelle here.  They have faithfully prayed with and for me every day.  We have all battled niggling sicknesses for the whole time here.  And they have adapted very well to the continually changing (and often shambolic!) conditions, and mixed so well in the personal one-on-one that counts for so much as we meet, mix, and live among the local believers.

You feel so small here when you see the unending need, not just materially, but spiritually too.  The story that helps though is one we heard of a man walking along the seashore, where a school of fish had beached themselves.  He saw another man in front of him walking along and randomly picking up a fish here and there and throwing it back into the deeper water.  He said to him, "why bother when there are so many dying?"  To which the man replied, "it might not make a difference to them, but it sure made a difference to that one!" We have tried to be faithful and sincere in how we have modelled the Christian behaviour Jesus expects of us, both in word, conduct, and helpful actions.  And we hope that, along the way, we have made a difference to "that one" and a few more.

Second Trip - Nov 2003

I (Brian) took a brief 12-day trip back to Zimbabwe in November for a Lifeline Network Leaders live-in 3-day conference.  Seven of us met to discuss the direction of the ministry, and came away with much to do.  Joy Doughty also came from our church here, not to attend the conference but to meet the people, especially Mavis Ford, and folks at Gweru.  Joy spent four years in Kenya in the 1980's, and was a real blessing as she came to Banket and Gwarati, meeting people on the farm churches.  We were able to get 100kgs of stuff onto Qantas free of excess rates and distribute shoes and socks to farm pastors, and leave clothing for the main base to distribute, plus a large case of educational stuff and clothes for the Sparrows Nest orphanage in Mozambique.  We also took all our Church's collected missions' offerings with us.  It was substantial, and received with joy!

The need is accelerating beyond belief.  The inflation rate has hit 540% - that's 1.5% per day, and the locals simply cannot factor that into their wage adjustments...  The cost of staple foods (mealie, bread, sugar, cooking oil, etc) is spiralling beyond the reach of the ordinary people with no access to forex.  Our hearts went out to them more than ever.  You feel so helpless to help in any substantial way materially, and do what you can do.

But the Word of God is not chained!  The gospel is freely honoured and proclaimed without restraint.  So, we travelled up to Banket and Gwarati, onto farms that have been taken over and left unutilised. The farm churches have been severely restricted by the removal of several Christian farmers who were funding the farm pastors.  BUT, at Gwarati, following on from a word I felt God give me last year, we rejoiced to find a flourishing congregation consisting of over 75% new converts from the "re-settlers" (sometimes wrongly called "war veterans" - who are another more controlling group of cadres).  There they were, young adults, praising God and joined as one with some of the remaining farm workers (now unemployed, but who have nowhere else to move and live).

Peter Zulu declared it was like a second harvest beginning in place of the initial revival in the district some years ago which saw many, many farm churches established.  Peter is still having trouble with a growth in his bladder and we just heard today (Dec 12) that he has to have surgery to remove his bladder or it will become life-threatening quickly.  This will cost an enormous amount of money (about $A5000 - which last month amounted to $Z20 million!  Anyone out there who can help save this precious man's life - help!

The Zulus surrendered two bedrooms so both Joy and I could stay with them - they are like that...  So open-hearted.  And this was with their son and daughter-in-law and one week old baby living there as well!

The main reason for the second trip in the same year was to participate in a Lifeline network leaders 3-day gathering in Harare.  It was very profitable, and we finished with a wonderful meal together at a restaurant walking distance down the road (not that anyone walked!).  The photo shows Brian acting like the Lord at the Last Supper (we were trying to work out who Judas was...).  (Later note...  this was an event of great significance to Brian, as unbeknown to any of us, it would be the last time Brian would be with his brother, Peter Zulu.  Within two months, the cancer that had made him so ill, flared up and killed him.  A true shamwari and mukoma - gone home far too early...

2002 TRIP

24/7/02  UPDATE #1  Hello from beautiful, fragrant Beira, Mozambique, where you hope the wind stays on shore….!  (you have to be here to understand why).  We hope the canvas of life here comes across sharp and fresh as you read this!

We flew into Zimbabwe via Joburg (none flies direct now), then up to Harare where Lifeline, the relief and missions agency our church has worked with for 20 years is based.  We had a very beneficial recovery time the last 4 days here in Harare before we left for three weeks of Doulos training courses and travelling between the various places.  Our health is good (no food poisoning this time!), the weather is wonderful, and we had a great time catching up with the Lifeline directors, Loxley and Mavis Ford.  Brian spent a long time with Edmore, one of the Lifeline Zimbabwean leaders.  It is the first time we had seen him since his terrible car accident.  He is recovering slowly.  He lost almost all of his right hand, and the prosthesis is more cosmetic rather than functional for gripping things.  He has had to learn to write left-handed, and can't drive because the whole of his right hand and palm is gone apart from his thumb.

Elizabeth has been out walking and talking with Mavis Ford, the wife of the Sthn Africa Lifeline Director (Loxley Ford).  Good cappuccinos are hard to come by here, but they walk anyway!  Life in Africa - last year all the street signs had been stolen for aluminium cooking utensils!  Now they are putting up plastic ones…  A few weeks ago thieves cut down all the phone wires in the street where the Harare base is and carried them off!  But when the phone went down again, the fault was at the Exchange (again).  We take so much for granted in Oz.  Life here is not as dangerous as our media makes out (unless you're a farmer, then it's very tense)…

Oh yes, by the way, the Lifeline truck now sports a big Sydney Swans Aussie Rules sticker on its back window!

We crossed the border late afternoon Sunday after the 300 km drive from Harare.  Then another two hours down to Gondola, the town known for its enormous graveyard of rusting old steam railway engines.  It's an amazing sight!  We walked among them last night and Loxley was a boy with lots of large, very large, toys!

This is the first Doulos course here and is being put on with the sponsorship of a pastor who has lived here since before the Portuguese fled in 1975 and the 17 year-long civil war erupted.  He is such an interesting man to listen to.  He bought his house, then the Communists took it off him and he has been renting it for about 25 years!  Now they have offered to sell it back to him again.  The catch has been if you do any repairs, upkeep, etc, they want more money for it.  And the Communists have done no repairs, as landlords themselves, in the past 25 years.  So, you can imagine the state of the houses.  They are unbelievable.  Loxley arranged for three light globes and wires to be hung off the roof so they could see at night.  The state of decay everywhere is far worse than Beira.  It overwhelms you.  The sights, the stench.  At lunch, a dog, a cat, and then a goat wandered past our table in the dining room.  The water supply broke down for the whole town.  That was only five years ago and they are going to fix it real soon now….  So, you use borehole water, hand pump it up and then bucket it into the house….

We are staying at Maforga orphanage just up the road (run by an ex-pat Aussie and his wife).  It has about 150 people living in the bush with all sorts of projects going.  They are out of money so breakfast consists of bread, honey or jam (no margarine today), and tea.  And that's it.  The civil war went through here several times and the orphanage leaders were kidnapped by Renamo in the late 1980's and force-marched for many weeks across Mozambique.  It's quite an amazing story, as the guerrilla leader became a committed Christian as a result of this and is now one of the head foremen at Maforga!

Our course went well.  The power was off after a hailstorm the night before, but no worries, it came on mid-afternoon.  The public toilets next to the church are a sight all ladies would die for…  The men's long drop (hole in the floor) is at least on top of the ground, because the ladies has sunk into the cesspit over the years and is now 1.5 metres sunk into the ground!  Elizabeth wouldn't go near it!  Next to them, an old leper who has only stumps where his hands (wrists only now) and feet (ankles gone) once were, makes a living shaping and selling leftover timber.  His name is Thomas, and the owners of Maforga built him a small one-room cottage years ago and he has become a local identity.  There are cripples and maimed people everywhere.  John Moyo tells us landmines still go off and maim people.  It is all we can do to cope emotionally.  The need is so vast and we are so small.  But at least we have had the opportunity to minister to some 40 local leaders who can do something longterm for the needy there.

Today (Wed), we set out for Beira (3 hours drive away, where we do another two full days Thursday and Friday, before the long drive back to Harare Saturday.  On the way down, we stopped to see an old friend from previous visits.  Daniel Caetana.  He and his wife have pastored in Nyamatanda, 100km inland from Beira for 30 years.  On our previous visits, he has caught the shaperzays (jam-packed old bomb minibuses) down and back daily for the seminars.  He's our age, speaks excellent English, and has a keen sense of humour.  Today, he had some extra houseguests living with him - over 30 orphans!  They started caring for a few orphans a while ago as the AIDS epidemic spread, then people started dropping unwanted, and/or single parent children at his door.  He has started building an orphanage on his property, but ran out of money before the roof went on.  The building will house over 40 children, but in the meantime, they are using their entire house to sleep the orphans on the floor at night!  Heck!  And this man is 56!  I tried to put myself in his shoes, and I couldn't.  Talk about putting your faith into action!  They have the cement roofing but no rafters yet.  About the cost of a night out for four in a Sydney restaurant would cover it….

We have been quite overwhelmed being here - more so than Beira ever has hit us, and that was hard enough.  Please, folks, don't ever complain about your lot in life or else we will bring you here, and believe us, you will never complain again!  About anything!

We hope this doesn't sound too preachy, or too much like a travelogue, or like a bleeding-heart guilt-tripper.  But, we sure hope your heart is touched by what we send.  Hakuna wah kaita sa Jesu!  Regards from the Rensfords (Brian and Elizabeth).

1/8/02  UPDATE #2  Since our previous Update, we have been travelling, teaching, and experiencing life in most unusual circumstances…  This trip is very different from our previous visits.  But, there is only so much we can openly relay...

We drove south from Harare to Gweru, a cold, windswept, rural city in the middle of Zimbabwe.  There we conducted our third Doulos program with a small group of local pastors in a high-density residential area.  It was like no other location!  The roof was half-built, the floors were dirt, there was no glass in any window so they were covered with tarpaulins and sheets of rusty corrugated iron, and the back wall was made of hessian cloth.  There was no power, but we did have a blackboard!  Yeah, but no proper seats, just bits of wood and iron tied together.

Yet, the men were terrific to relate to!  We loved spending time with them.  They had very able minds and we got into many deep and serious discussions.  And we went with them to two house meetings; one was in a tiny two-room shack where the wife had given her life to Christ a month ago.  People were jammed in the lounge / dining / kitchen room (3m x 3m).  The next night was in another part of the township (it has 20 village areas called Mkoba 1 to 20!), and we got lost in the rabbit warren of small roads!  The house there was very well appointed and much larger.  We have had a far greater liberty in praying for the sick and oppressed and have seen God do some wonderful things.  The pastors relayed back later several reports of healing and release - including the best one of all - a very old 80 y/o mama who was greatly touched by God as we ministered to her.

This is an area we were concerned about before we came - to add actions to the teaching and instruction side of what we are involved in.  We have seen God's provision, demonic agitation, many sick people reaching out and being ministered to (especially babies and children), and you can't help but be moved by the need.  There are few medical resources available to ordinary folks here.  So, they reach out to Jesus just like the people in Galilee 2000 years ago.

The queue for mealie (the staple diet) was a km long at the food market yesterday.  It breaks your heart.  The nation is not really in a bad drought; it is a distribution issue, and now there are no stored grains left.  Diesel is plentiful though.

Thursday, we drove further south to an area near Bulawayo.  The farmer who so kindly hosted us is under standby eviction orders and is supposed to be off the land by Aug 10.  We have walked into the middle of a most stressed time, as they are older folks and have farmed here for over 40 years and are now waiting to see what happens after D-Day.  All their possessions are being catalogued.  Some of their personal house staff has taken off (we think, in fear).  There are 300 local people living on the property.  The farmer is a very committed Christian and has built a large well-appointed church and school facility nearby.  We have power there and toilets that work properly!  (long drops of course; they are Blair toilets - and if you know Africa - Mr Blair (no, not Tony!) was a British engineer who invented an odour-free air-circulating long drop dunny!  Thank God for Mr Blair!  Elizabeth loves him (especially after Mozambique!)….

Our host has a very large and stately home with a ferocious boer-bull guard dog that prevents us from strolling in the well-appointed gardens!  So, we walked around the farm this morning, with good old Brian greeting the locals (Ndebele tribe) with "lichoneelee", and getting smiles but puzzled looks.  And then discovering he's saying "good afternoon / evening" to people at 7am!!!  The house is like something out of Sunset Boulevarde; what a change from Gweru!  And the tents we will be sleeping in at Binga in the bush in two weeks!  So, we are making the most of their kindness and hospitality until we leave in another two days.

8/8/02  UPDATE #3  Hello again from Harare.  Elizabeth and I have just returned from Chinhoyi, 120km north of here, where we finished the fifth Doulos course at 4 this afternoon.  We have kept excellent health this trip; thank the Lord, and are very appreciative to everyone who has been praying for us.  We walk and pray every day, and have really enjoyed this time.  It's been quite exhausting as we are near the end of a three-week series of five programs with a lot of travelling between them.  We have had no rest days at all; it's been either travel and / or teaching long hours.  But, the Holy Spirit has carried us along.

This trip, we have been crying out to God for more effectiveness in ministry fulfilment of the principles taught.  And God has been breaking through.  We have seen more healings and people stepping out in prophecy for the first time.  In the last Doulos course in Chinhoyi, there are 10 students living in for 2 weeks, and we (wrongly) assumed they were all baptised in the Holy Spirit.  Last night, we had six baptised in the Holy Spirit, with release in tongues.  And then some in prophecy and one in a (very biblical) vision too.  On the coming weekend, we are back at Banket at the annual Heroes' Long Weekend farm convention for all the farm churches in the area.  They get between 1500 - 6000 come.  This is the one that last year got canned because of the troubles, and we were moved into the township for safety reasons.  But things have settled down a lot (despite what the foreign media may say), and they are all looking forward to gathering on a Christian farmer's property.  This godly man provides a large meeting area and accommodation huts for everyone.  Amazing.

Today is the day all the farmers are supposed to be off their properties, but a lot are staying put, many with the quiet approval of local authorities.  After the farm convention, we drive a long way the next day into the bush to take some seminars for rural church leaders near Lake Kariba.  It's a bad malaria area, but at least the elephants are not raiding their crops this year (like last year when their leaders came down to Doulos!).  We may even get to hunt kudu with Peter Zulu!!

To finish off….  What strikes us forcefully is the number of fresh graves everywhere in the public cemeteries.  It's unbelievable, and really does bring the AIDS epidemic home in your face.  This is very different from good old Aussie…

17/8/02  UPDATE #4  The last week has been one of the most interesting (and somewhat weirdest of our lives!).  This report (like the others) respects the particular sensitivities of the current situation.  Our week went like this…

We drove the 100 kms to the farm convention very early Sunday morning.  Numbers were way down again.  The particular location is a listed property for a Section 8 resumption which comes into effect very soon.  Already, there are 35 resettled families of settlers occupying the farm, lining the track into the convention area.  This made it very interesting for us (being varungu - white foreign people), but Elizabeth and I went for a (prayed up!) walk among them during Sunday and greeted people in Shona along the way - without incident.  Several of these people (some media call them war veterans, but they are not; they are resettled people) came up and  attended the meetings (more on that in a later report….).  Brian urged the local Christians to reach out to these dislocated and resettled people, as they are candidates for "who is my neighbour?" evangelism.  It was a "quite exciting" time of ministry!

Loxley and Brian taught in the morning sessions, then we went to lunch with the farm's resident pastor, Peter Banda, whom we have had fellowship with before several times.  His house stands alone nearby, and they lost their kitchen and storehouse huts in a grass fire recently (the amount of burnoff here drives us nuts as Aussies; it's an obsession!  The land is scorched for miles everywhere in winter, not just bush areas, but in the towns too….).

The night meeting went on under portable generator power, and in the middle of the dancing (you have to understand that a meeting isn't a meeting here without lots of dancing!), as the dust swirled off the dry ground, we looked up from the platform we were sitting on to see a tractor and water cart chugging up the farm road.  He drove right across in front of the platform (the area in the photo), into the middle of where a hundred plus people were dancing out the front and proceeded to hose down the dust while the music continued!  We have never seen a service like this in our lives!!!  Yet, it was a wonderful night of colour, worship, under the stars, preaching and ministry.  We prayed (encouraging the farm pastors to join us) for around 200 people for healing, salvation, baptism in the Holy Spirit, etc.  A demonised young woman fell backwards and after lying still for 30 minutes began to thrash around on the ground.  Immediately a group of leaders (men and women) attended to her with ministry.  As we finished praying for people, I asked our host, Peter Zulu (the Coordinator and senior minister of the farm churches network) if everything was OK, to which he replied in a classic understatement, "yes, she is OK now; the Intensive Care team are now looking after her…."

We also spent time in the afternoon with the farm owners, who have so graciously provided the facilities.  Every year they re-thatch the hedges around the toilets, wash areas, cooking pits, and the meeting facility.  It all worked very well!  Yes folks, you can squat here in clean surroundings!  They even bring clean water to all the facilities on big tractor carts (no dunny paper here unless you bring your own!)  The owners are on standby to leave the farm after 22 years, and have not done any farming since Christmas.  It was a sad occasion, and gave us insight into things from the inside.  They are greatly loved by the local Christian community (mostly farm workers, many of whom are now losing their jobs now that farm work has ceased).

Then, after a night at Peter and Martha's home in the township (no drums this Heroes' weekend - unlike the incessant noise last year), we stayed at Chinhoyi to use up the last night of our prepaid motel accommodation that we had not used for the local Doulos program the week before.  It was lovely!  And empty…  A very basic, but clean place, and we walked all through the (large) town where last year no murungu would be seen on the streets because of the tension after 21 farmers were arrested and jailed.  The difference this year was amazing.  We really love walking around among the local people.  Brian's Shona has improved a lot, and it draws a friendly response most times.

On Tuesday, Loxley and Peter loaded up their 4WD's and we drove to one of the most remote areas of the country.  There were only 110 kms of unsealed road, but the corrugations on the last 60 km are unbelievable!  The gravel ruts were so high you  wouldn't get a car through.  We pitched camp in the bush just inside Matusadonha NP (15km from where the Pommie tourist got dragged out of his tent and eaten by a shumba (lion) two years ago!).  And here we were - in flimsy tents!  We spent three nights there listening to every noise in the dark!  Cowards that we are!  A hyena visited us two nights.  Peter opened his flap and roared at it in Shona from about 2 metres!  Momma mia!  Kudu (large deer) called from nearby one night, but no shumba…  We were told the second day that there are currently lions all over the place.  One killed a donkey 2 kms away a week or so before.  And on the second morning, one of the local Christians who came over to see us said he had passed some elephants up the road (they go after the local farmers' plots).  No wonder we felt like we didn't sleep peacefully!...   And no drinks after 5pm, coz there's no way we were going outside the tent for a pee after going to bed!  The locals said the tourist did that and the lion followed him back into his tent later on the same night...

We had meetings with two of the local pastors' people and another two with their leaders (all three had been in our Doulos course last year, where they had invited us to visit their area).  But Bvumai (the one whose worn-out socks adorn our church noticeboard and African room at home!) was out chasing his lost donkey….  Sounds like something out of the Old Testament…  We had never seen so many babies!  The place was crawling with children.  Lifeline distributed clothing both places we visited.  This is one of the poorest areas of Zimbabwe.  They are living on Christian food aid (the elephants steal most of their crops every year), and we left all the clothing we had brought in our spare cases too.  Brian gave away half his clothes again.  You can't help it when you see the poverty.  And the hardship….  One night, a man brought his son to our bush camp.  The 11 y/o had just been attacked by a spitting cobra, which had spat venom into his eyes.  We had no medicine, but Loxley was able to wash the venom out with copious water, and pray for him.  He recovered noticeably.  This stuff overwhelms you and you determine again NEVER to complain about Medicare availability at home!

To top it all off, we spent one day driving on the worst road we have ever seen in our entire lives (no kidding) into Taschinga in the NP.  It was a trip to remember.  The back window popped out of the HiLux cab, because of the vehicle twisting on the riverbeds, rocks, etc.  But it brought us out to the most magnificent piece of bush on the edge of Lake Kariba (nearly 300km long and up to 50km wide).  A Christian missions' group of 20 young people were stranded in a riverbed 20 km from the road-end, where their big 4WD truck had snapped a diff.  The young people had pitched their tents on the sand and were waiting for some tools to arrive.  They would be there for two days minimum doing the African thing - waiting…

At Taschinga, we walked into a control zone with 5 black rhino which are part of a protection program - with two armed rangers, we hasten to add!  Spent an hour at close range watching them (like, from only 20 meters away)…  A marvellous sight.  One ranger had just killed a lion, which had attacked him at night in the dark.  He heard it creeping up on him and his keen hearing saved his life as it leapt at him.  The shumba are so numerous they have chased much of the game into the mountains we crossed to get there.  So, on the way out, up high, we drove into a very closely-bunched herd of buffalo (an indication of lions nearby).  No. the lions didn't bite us, but Elizabeth copped two tsetse fly bites (they follow the buffalo).  By the time we drove out of the track it was right on dark, and boy, were we glad to head back to the camp.  A day we will never forget.

At least in the bush there were no mozzies (and therefore, no malaria).  But mopane flies!  They make our Aussie ones look like amateurs.  They are small and crawl in your eyelids!  We slept on thin backpacker foam sheets, and remembered we are too old to be doing this…  Coupled with the nervousness we had over the presence of lions, we didn’t sleep much at all!  Peter Zulu didn’t help by telling us of the time he was camping in the bush when a male lion roared at them from (a tiny) 15 metres away; he turned and saw its red eyes in the firelight, before everyone broke the world short-course sprint record by leaping into the Land Rover, where all 5 of them spent the night huddled together!  Singing songs like, "fear not" just doesn't help in such times…

On the drive out, we got three punctures between the two vehicles (an indication of how rough the "main" road was!  They couldn't move the wheel nuts the first time (the tools didn't fit), and Brian saved them with some old Kiwi fix-anything-with-a-piece-of-fencing-wire creativity!  It took us a whole day to get back to Harare.  We were all exhausted, as the Binga district is also the hottest part of Zimbabwe.  It was up over 30 every day.

This has gone too long, but we hope you catch something of what it's been like.  I (Brian) lay in our tent the last night, listening to the sounds of the bush, and thought of my early years growing up in Auckland NZ in a housing commission area, with a mother who loved to read to my brothers and me stories of Africa and adventure, never dreaming that one day I would be privileged enough by God to actually go, not as a tourist, but to be involved in things that have significance, and to grow in ability to relate to the people as my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I am so grateful for the exposure I had years ago to many Maori people, who unknowingly were teaching me things that have been so very useful here.  Our lives have truly been blessed by our Saviour…

#5  Final Update from home
G'day from the Rensfords at Joburg airport - waiting for that lovely Qantas plane to fly us to Perth.  We spent the last week driving down from Harare, and covered more than 2500km - because we got the wobbles once we crossed the border out of Zimbabwe and veered across to Kruger National Park and the majestic Drakensberg mountains.  After the past 5 weeks up north, this week was a holiday, despite the travelling.  We spent three glorious days in Kruger and couldn't believe how well Sth Africans run things.  Graded roads in place of corrugated goat tracks, and so on.  We saw so much wild game (couple of photos attached for proof.  We stayed in very comfortable quarters and were lastly looked after by the operators of Emmanuel Press in White River (330km from Joburg) in their guest accommodation.  We attended a black church that meets next door that has one white member - Loreen Newington, the 81 y/o widow of David Newington.  They came out from Scotland to Africa in 1945 and founded Emmanuel Press, which continues to produce Christian literature in over 100 African languages!  She is a real sharp old lady! 

Brian mentioned we had both been influenced many years ago in our Ministry Training College by Jean "Granny" Beruldsen from Scotland;  Granny had come to Australia via a long stint in China as missionaries from Edinburgh AoG in the early 1930's.  Loreen's eyes lit up and she exclaimed, "Jean was my youth leader before they left Scotland!"  What an amazingly small world…  She told us a lot about Granny's background that we weren't aware of.  Yeah, heaven will be one big reunion!…

That's it, folks.  Hope you have a clearer picture of things over there from what we have sent you.  One last hearty thank you once again to everyone who has prayed for us.  Oh has it been so noticeable!  In health, in protection, in spiritual safety in a highly demonised environment, in "chance" encounters with people, in Christian contact and opportunities to express in practical ways, God's great love for all mankind.  Hakuna wah kaita sa Jesu! 

And there's more information on Lifeline's work in Southern Africa on  www.hnlc.org.au/lifeline

2001 TRIP

2/8/01  Update #1  What a start to my fourth trip to Africa in the last four years!  And I can't even blame African hygiene!  After four days ministry with New Life Churches in Perth, WA, I came down with violent food poisoning on the flight from Joburg to Harare a day later.  Never eat prawns on a flight…  After arriving in Joburg, I found Debbie already had landed direct from Sydney, and Sherry McLean, our very gracious host arrived soon afterwards.  Next morning she dropped us at the airport, and bingo!  Brian is staring at the ceiling…  An agonising stop in Harare's brand new airport for two hours (spent running to the washroom regularly), and the Hess's rescued us (I had given Loxley the wrong flight arrival time).  They took us home and I spent the next three days giving new meaning to runner's hit-outs…  Sometimes not making it in time…

My gut is rumbling as I write this.  I am taking up a special offering to cover the cost of toilet paper I have used the past three days.  I am in some pain from gas and diarrhoea.  Debbie is advising me on what I should eat and how little.  I feel like Paul with Luke, the personal physician In tow!   She was a great help actually, while I wanted to die.  It's no joy cleaning the dunny - walls and all - at 2am, and having a quick bath at 4am…  I am definitely NOT called to India, where I understand this kind of rapid weight reduction program is quite common…

Thank God for the three days here to get oriented.  It seems this bug has been slower to dislodge than I had reckoned on.  Last night I had to leap out of bed 4 times and race to the dunny - twice too late, and had to clean myself up yet again.  I feel like a 2 y/o.  So, the three days recovery in Harare before heading down to Mozambique was a godsend.  Recovered while our Mozambiquan visas were processed, then off to the downhill descent to Dante's Inferno! 

9/8/01 Update #2  I have recovered really well and thank the many who prayed for me while I spend lots of time on the throne.  For the past five days we have been involved in the Doulos training program for pastors in the port city of Beira, in Mozambique.  The effects of the 17 years long civil war are still everywhere, although signs of recovery are starting to show.  They were expecting about 15 pastors and leaders to turn up and everyone was quite amazed when some 45 came - most for the whole three days!  This gave us quite an extended opportunity to present elements of the course which balances development of ministry with character issues - something that was sadly lacking in former days in this place.  (The ministers' fraternal leader died of AIDS a few years ago!).

Debbie is slowly recovering from the culture shock of Beira!  She spoke at two midweek meetings and did quite well tonight (after I told her to slow down - her Aussie accent was losing the interpreter…).  They now have replaced pulpit candles with kero lamps (so it's harder to set fire to your Bible!).  Afterwards we walked across the courtyard to pray with the widow of a brother who was buried yesterday.  Everyone left some money.  She lives in one room!  Such poverty, yet the church has been very kind to her.  It was very moving, being in a darkened room with only one small candle for light, praying for a woman who has nearly nothing.  It is so much closer to NT life (and need and death) here than at home.  You get dragged back to the basics without the frills of Western religion.

We return to two more week-long courses in Zimbabwe.  One in a rural area where transport is especially difficult, and the other in Bulawayo - second city of Zimbabwe.  I am supposed to be speaking with Loxley at a Conference in the first area before Doulos starts, but circumstances have developed that are making arrangements rather difficult.  Please pray that we may have God's guidance for the next week especially.  Debbie is staying in Harare with Mavis, for the first three days before she joins the team at Doulos.  Peter Zulu is going to shoot some kudu to feed the pastors who gather for the two weeks! (They are a large tasty local deer).  Boy!  This beats our Aussie way of doing things!

Update from Harare Thursday night - we arrived back after a slow 12 hour trip from Beira.  The trip was relatively uneventful (this means the border crossing went AOK and we had no near misses).  A car from Barnabas ministries (USA) passed us twice in Mozambique, but we caught him 145 km out from Harare.  Turned out they had been given dirty fuel and their car was travelling along in fits and starts at 40kph.  The American is due to fly out early tomorrow so we took him on board with us and dropped him at his stopover house nearby here.  He was so grateful after starting to get concerned about making it (his luggage had disappeared coming into Africa too).  Here everyone helps everyone (there are not a lot of cars on the highways).

And where would we be without the wonders of the Internet even in Africa, where we can sit stunned at the joyous news that the Sydney Swans walloped rivals the Kangaroos by 107 points last weekend!  And my footy tips can still be sent in…  What a strange world we're now living in…  Thanks again to everyone praying for us.

17/8 Update #3  Last weekend, Loxley, Moses and I were 100km from Harare for two days where Loxley and I were the speakers at a combined churches convention in a commercial farming area.  We left Debbie with Mavis in Harare, as it was "Heroes Long-Weekend", a public holiday when revolutionary heroes of the war of Independence are honoured nationwide.  The situation has been extremely tense here; it is the same area you may have heard that 20 farmers were arrested and jailed just days before, after some were alleged to have assaulted some new settlers who had moved onto one farm.  We have had to be extremely careful.  

When we drove into the area, the senior minister was waiting for us on the highway before the town.  It turned out an older (white) man had just been attacked and badly beaten right outside the building we will be using this coming week for Doulos, and he did not think it safe for us to call in there.  So, we drove past straight to his house in the (African) township further down the road.

Rocks were thrown on our roof Saturday night.  The pastor says this happens from time to time.  The drums beat all around us all night (literally!)  Sat. and Sun. as people brewed beer in honour of their ancestors and to call in their spirits to join them in their houses.  We are told that for some reason August is the busiest month for this activity.  I found it a not-restful spiritual atmosphere, to put it mildly….  There was a palpable presence of demonic forces.  BUT ALSO, God's abundant, sufficient, superior presence too!

The meetings have been a great time of noise, celebration, and worship!  Because of transport and safety problems, they were moved off a farm where they normally have over 1500 people come together, to the local township's church building, where there is only room for 400 to 500.  The place was jammed.  My ears are still ringing!  But I got my own back, by teaching them "an Aussie song" both days - both ones Marcus Leiman taught us at home in Shona.  This delighted them!  They knew them of course, but I made them sing without the ever-present loud distorting keyboards, and the harmony settled into a beautiful bass (men) soprano (women) and me somewhere in the middle, leading out the first word of each line in true African style!  Marcus would have been proud of me!  I felt like the white kid in the jail scene in the film, the Power of One!

Brian demonstrating "reclining on Jesus' breast…" Debbie with Cynthis Moyo and children (Blessing and Blessed Joy) in Bulawayo    >>>

Peter Zulu and Peter Banda at Banket farm Churches convention on "Heroes Weekend"

Five days later - the situation has quieted down somewhat, but there is tension in the air.  Farmhouses have been looted nearby and the Government has announced additional police protection for the district.  I have been for a jog twice - but made sure I am never in sight of the main highway.  Such a pity as the area is so fertile and the local people so friendly.  The official reports are blaming criminal elements from Harare for the violence and damage.  But I had my first ever in four trips experience of racist antagonism when a young man walked past the Doulos property and spat at me in Shona, "are you a farmer?!?"  Moses interpreted and was not impressed either.

We ate kudu (a large deer) two nights; delicious!  Peter Zulu has promised to take me hunting next visit up near Matusadonha (you may remember the poor Pommie tourist up there who left his tent open last year and got eaten by a lion!).

Debbie arrived up Monday with Mavis, Loxley's wife.  She is getting on well with the female students attending this Doulos course.  The hotel the course is located in is a grand relic of former times.  Large, spacious, and partly renovated.  Peter Zulu and his family have given up two rooms of their home to accommodate Debbie too, now she has arrived.  They are such gracious hosts.  He is rebuilding the Land Rover that was wrecked in April - using crude equipment, the locals are resurrecting it from the dead!  Quite amazing.

The course is going well.  I am doing similar material to last year, on "handling the Bible correctly" and this time looking at the automatic bias in all of us from our family, social, tribal, and national conditioning.  Today, in my last session before we drive back to Harare tonight, I covered getting your "feet washed daily by your fellow slaves".  We had some real fun doing this - practising reclining at table a la 1^st C AD (as in the photo above), and keeping our left hand away from the table and food, explaining the Latin for left hand is sinister!

Debbie has taken some lectures and done the Doulos material justice!  She is starting to settle into an African framework of time, relationships, and joy….  The week has been tense, but fulfilling, and the bonds built we hope will endure.  The student numbers were more than halved by the trouble and transport situation.

One last cameo to give you an idea of what pastors from this part of the world face….  You will never complain again, believe me!  I brought again spare clothes and shoes from home to fill up my airline luggage limit.  Peter Zulu recommended certain students (several are older men) who do it hard.  One comes from an area where they never have enough food because the elephants come in and raid their crops!  I found that a pair of good quality running shoes Jim Barr gave me to pass on fitted him perfectly.  He was so thrilled.  I told him he needed to wear socks to stop the inside of the shoes wearing away (like the ones he had on).  At which point he pulled a worn pair of socks out from under his soles in the shoes and put them on.  Only thing was - they had no bottoms!  The toes and heels were worn away; there was only the part over the top of his feet and ankle left.  I said to him he needed to make sure he used full socks when he got home (several hundred kms away) to stop the new shoes wearing away.  He looked at me embarrassed and said, "these are my only socks"….  What could I do?  Heck, I have three pairs of thick running socks with me.  Ummm, isn't that what 1 John 3:17-18 says?  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.  Man, this stuff comes home with a whack…  How easy we have it at home.  I don't feel guilty about this, but where I can make a difference, I have no other option if I love God.  So I did a sock swap with him, so I can bring his home and show our church what pastors in Africa put up with without complaining!  (one sock is now displayed in our African Room at home in a glassed frame! It really hits visitors!).

23/8 Update #4  This Saturday night, we finish our time in Bulawayo, Moses Koroka arrives to join us, and we climb on an overnight train to Victoria Falls.  Four days of seeing the part of Zimbabwe tourists are more familiar with, and then we split up.  I return home, Moses catches a bus back to Harare, and Debbie flies on to London for two weeks.  Debbie is doing really well on this third Doulos program.  She is now teaching and leading discussion groups every afternoon, and the students are relating to her really well.  This one has about 13 women in it - mostly younger ones, and they relate to her very well.  You should have seen her helping cook the sudza yesterday!  (have a look at the photo below) They were amazed she would offer to help in the kitchen.  

Things are much safer here racially, but there is a high criminal risk in this area after dark.  One of the girls had a knife at her throat 150 meters from here coming to the session just after dark.  The people here are doing it really hard.  Honestly, you would never moan again.  When we arrived, the 20+ students had been living on sudza for lunch, no morning or afternoon tea (not even tea or cordial), sudza and cabbage for dinner.  No sauce, relish, meat, no fruit, no coffee or tea, no dessert.  Debbie and I looked at each other and said, "how can we stay in George's house (the course is being held next door in a church hall) and eat ordinary portions, while these students aren't getting enough for basic health?"  So, we asked how much to add meat, and some vegetables to the menu for 20+ students.  Now they have these things and are happy, and you know what it cost us?  For 4 days?  Eight Australian dollars each!  You can hardly call that sacrificial giving can you??  Several of the students have been battling illnesses here.  Mosquitos are out in force, and although this is not a strong malaria district (like where we're going Sunday is), you have to cover up carefully.

Oh yeah, and the male students are sleeping on carpet pieces on concrete floors in the old servants' quarters….  Don't tell me they're not keen to learn and grow!  And in all this, none of them complain…  I've been trying to translate this to Australia if we tried to run a training program like Doulos in these conditions….  I can't!

I have been doing my biased, our-own-culture's "normal" values system to "kingdom normal" series, and things came alive yesterday especially - on the subject of spiritual warfare and ministering deliverance - this is in their face all the time in this culture.  We discussed how to counter the "mhondoro" (district ruling spirits), and the "flies" that work under their authority.

Wadzanai preached Tuesday night.  She is the young lady some of you have heard of through Moses Koroka courting her.  Man, she has an exceptional gift!  A very keen-for-God young lady, and well spoken.  Moses knows what he is doing there…  Now he needs only 10 mombees (cows) or $Z200,000 ($A2200) for her lobolo - bride price - and he can marry her!  It will take a miracle provision in this economic depression, where they don't even have enough money to properly feed themselves.  

Moses and fiancée, Wadzanai at Bulawayo Brian finally gets his heart's desire when Alice (student) and husband make him a Zimbabwean shirt!!  >>>

Debbie joined in the preparing of sudza, and then ate it to prove it's good for you!  Bulawayo.

Every time I come here, I go home and say, "I will never complain about anything in Aussie again!"  This time, I'm saying it with double the sincerity!  This morning, about 6.15, I set out on my normal morning prayer walk, to be greeted by the sight of several men patrolling the streets, before the garbage truck collected the rubbish, sifting through the household garbage bins.  

Lastly, thanks once again to everyone who has prayed constantly for us here.  We have been conscious of the support - honestly.  I am writing this in my room before going to take my first session for the day.  The students are next door, and the sound of their incredible singing has been drifting through my window.  I wish I could take you here just to be moved by the depth of their sincere worship, the marvellous harmonies of their voices, and the sheer joy they express in their unrestrained singing.  Jesu wedu number one (our Jesus is number one)!  

6/9/01 (Final) Update #5  Written from home….  The trip was "edgy" in places.  We were encouraged by Debbie's comment before leaving Australia, "the safest place is right where God wants you to be"….  But our hearts went out continually to the folks we encountered whose economic base is very tough right now.  I gradually gave away all my clothes, shoes, and other stuff, returning home with the stuff I was wearing + my "Sunday" shirt and pants.  And that was after filling my luggage allowance with spare clothes from home.  How could you do otherwise???

On a brighter note, for the last five days, I took Moses and Debbie to some of the most beautiful country in the whole world - Victoria Falls, where we stayed NOT in the $A250 pp / per night hotels, but in the $A3 pp/pn 1960's lodges on the beautiful Zambesi River inside the National Park!   And that's motel-style accommodation!  Three of us caught the overnight train and travelled first class from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls!  Only trouble was the carriages haven't been repaired in over 20 years…  But we saw a whole host of wild life from the train the last 3 hours as the train was late (normal).  It averaged 30 kmh for 15 hours…  

Once at the Falls, we found a very helpful solo safari operator, who ended up ferrying us around for the four days for an agreed fee, much cheaper than the local taxis and heaps cheaper than the $US75/day for a tiny rental car!  So we had our four days r 'n' r - doing a 14 hour safari one day on our own with our guide, Sam.  We saw 26 species, including leopard, an eagle catching a snake (he said National Geographic wait years to catch that on film), lots of placid, bored, and aggressive elephants, and just on nightfall - a pride of five lions wandered out right on cue!  Debbie had never been in the bush before; the sight of her taking a flash photo of a male lion (shumba!) at 5 metres was a sight to behold!

While the foreign tourists "roughed" it in the town nearer the Falls (twice the length and height of Niagara), I got the other two to sit quietly on the veranda every night at dusk for a couple of hours as the moon came up, letting the sounds of the bush awaken our (human) spirits, as the animals begin to move around - some small and some BIG - VERY BIG!.  A few lodges away (they're separated by large tracts of bush to allow the animals to wander around) a Perth bloke told us how he had backed his little rental car into the parking bay one night, got out, turned around to find a full-grown bull elephant standing over the rear of his car in the dark!  It whacked the car roof with its trunk to let him know it wasn't amused at his backing up without noticing it…  The last night, before we went our three separate ways, I was woken at 1.30am by an elephant 50m away whacking a palm tree to dislodge the nuts they love to eat!!….  Love it!  What a wonderful final memory to have before coming home to a different kind of jungle….

So, once again, thanks so much for staying in touch, praying for us, and being interested in a place and people less fortunate than we are.  I hope these cameos help paint a wider portrait of our wonderful God and His heart for His people who are doing it tough in other places.

Effectiveness of the visit?  Yeah, very timely, and effective.  Picked up quite a lot of Shona phrases (phonetically not unlike Maori). Ndebele?  That's something else, with it's clicking sounds!  Getting onto the cultural wavelength this time seemed to give our ministry greater impact.  The people respond to genuine love and interest in them and their situation.  Next year, the brothers want Elizabeth and I to return for a longer period.  We will pray about it as we get closer to mid 2002.  Oh, and I managed to "sneak" a seven foot tall giraffe home for Elizabeth…  Beautiful woodwork craftsmen!

And oh yeah again!  If you want to use our connection to send donations, we know where it goes, how effective it is, and it goes 100%.  You can relay any contribution through New Life Church Holroyd's church office, 106A Jersey Rd, Greystanes  NSW  2145.  We send it quarterly. [top of page]

2000 VISIT WITH SEKURU BRIAN AND MOMMA ELIZABETH
At the risk of boring you all, we thought you might catch a glimpse of life here through these little cameos we send. It's broken up into sections you can jump to. We hope it gives you a balanced view of this marvellous part of the world; especially after some of the overseas media reports that have given (to us at least) a somewhat unbalanced view of life here at present. We hope these reports help allay some of the fears many of our friends and prayer supporters expressed before we left.

This first bit was written halfway across the Indian Ocean from Perth to Joburg. We had a very busy and enjoyable time in Perth which was marred somewhat a few hours ago by Brian living up to his reputation at being last to arrive at the airport for a flight. We made it with time to spare (but we aren't saying just how much time…). And by the man booking on before us saying his brother and sis-in-law were murdered in Joburg just yesterday. The situation there requires constant appraisal of safety strategies. Our hosts in Perth were pastors originally from Durban and they reiterated the need for extreme caution in Joburg at all times.

23/5 update from Joburg - our hosts Fritzy and Sherry (relatives by marriage) have given us a wonderful look at the "other side" of Johannesburg - quite different to the common reports we get in Aussie. Elizabeth and walked today for an hour around the streets without any cause for concern - just don't take anything with you or wear any fancy stuff. African people are very responsive to public greetings as you pass by them in the street - far more so than at home where everyone looks straight ahead and avoids eye contact! 

Fritzy is my father-in-law's 17 y/o grandson, whose mother and sister were blown to bits by an enormous letter bomb in 1985 sent from the old SA Govt's Death Squad. Sherry raised him after his father (re)married later. Their story is the subject of articles in various books, and came up before the SA Truth and Reconciliation Commission last year. Mandela called Fritzy's father (Marius) just three days before he died of lung cancer last year. Marius was an Afrikaaner who was regarded as a traitor by the Afrikaaners because he joined ANC and fought for an end to Apartheid. He was imprisoned in Pretoria for 12 long years. The family is marked by deep pain still. Makes us ever grateful to the freedom we have inherited in Australasia, doesn't it?

Something a little lighter! Brian finally had a breakthrough in the gift of interpretation of tongues - at 5.30am in the morning to be precise. That's after all the guard dogs started barking furiously at 3am. Anyway, we erupted out of sleep to the loud cry of a Muslim Imam around the corner, who was yelling in Arabic, supposedly calling the faithful to prayer. But we just KNEW that at 5.30, in the pitch dark, he was really saying, "all right you lot out there across the street! I can't sleep and I'm gonna make sure none of you can either!". Sherry says they have repeatedly asked him to turn down his newly installed boosted loudspeaker system, but he doesn't. Imagine if someone gave him a beat box and a Celica to drive around in….

26/5 update from Harare - we have now settled in with our hosts, Dave and Jen Hess, who Elizabeth stayed with in Mozambique in 1991. Their church is in the middle of their annual convention - who should be their main speaker last night? Phil Pringle, from Sydney Northern Beaches! He had to follow two hours of African praise, climaxing in a guest appearance by one of Zimbabwe's best known performers, who did a 10 minute+ item that had the whole 4000 congregation movin' and a shakin'!!!! He was their equivalent of John Farnham doing reggae! The way these people move is a sight to behold in itself! Such a contrast to the British background that also lingers on in part here.

The altitude (about 5000 feet ASL) makes jogging difficult for the first few days. We have been walking an hour a day in between commitments. Gasping when we step up the pace. We went in for our visas to Mozambique this morning - last year's application by Brian and Des was an expedition in red tape in itself - worthy of Fawlty Towers - waiting in a queue for four hours, complete with loud arguments, religious discussion, and much frivolity. But this year, after targeted prayer - a miracle happened! We walked in and there were only THREE people present! If you have been to Africa you already know that queues are an integral part of the culture. Time doesn't have the same meaning here. Take your watch off and work by the sun's position in the sky… So this really was a miracle! We walked out (still stunned) in about 15 minutes.

MOZAMBIQUE DOULOS Our week went well with a surprising number of pastors turning up (25) while two other pastors' seminars were on elsewhere in Beira. Some travelled 200km a day round trip on shaperzays to get there. Have a look on the Lifeline page. The city still smells the same! Sewerage city. Some signs of progress are appearing but it's gonna be a long, long haul… There's another shipwreck on the beach! 

The amount of aid getting through in the traditional relief networks is pretty well standard for this part of the world. Some gets through, but there are new vehicles driving around with relief organisation signs on them. And much aid is reported to have "disappeared" - as usual. But Lifeline's Ezra project is motoring along in control, with block making going on at our back door here! The main river was 200 kilometres wide at the worst flooding! Can you believe that? The winds measured up to 260 kph!! Elizabeth and I brought into Mozambique an additional $A2000 of support for the ministry here, provided by people outside our own church's support (another $A4000 / $Zim 90,000) which is distributed out from Harare. The people here are so grateful for the support that is shown by people so far away, "who having not seen, you love" This is truly one way of showing God's love across the oceans. Even the pens we brought from Sydney have been gratefully received by pastors who struggle to even buy the small things we take for granted at home.

Rust at Beira Training Base  is getting worse

Brian and interpreter, Anacleto. They were both   exhausted after 3 1/2 days of solid talking!

We set out on Saturday for Bulawayo and the second Doulos Training Course for pastors and leaders. That's 900 km via Mutare stopover and Masvingo. The next two (Bulawayo and Banket) are both in English. Brian's vocal chords took a bit of a pounding in Mozambique with the load of daytime teaching and nighttime preaching. You might pray for us both for continued good health.

MASVINGO STOPOVER We had a bit of a trial in Masvingo, in that our vehicle's oil seal perished over the last 300 kms, AND we were too low on diesel on go on from where we are staying at Masvingo - halfway to Bulawayo (and they had had no diesel deliveries in this district for three weeks). Then we saw God's provision. The vehicle was in the garage for most of the day - they had the right parts (seals, timing belt, diesel filter). That's the first praise point! And what a miserable day it was too, raining all day (most unseasonal in Zimbabwe this time of year), but while we were in there, talking to the supervisor about the repairs, a tanker came in. The queue stretched back for a long way and they were selling 20 litres per vehicle. Brian mentioned we were due in Bulawayo the next day and were nearly out of diesel. The supervisor said the fuel they had would not last the queue (our vehicle was still in bits). But then he asked if we would like 20 litres; Brian said it would sure help. A little later, he asked if 40 would get us there, then 50! He had his men fill 2 large jerry cans, right on the spot. So we ended up with a full tank + 15 extra litres in the back, with no hours of waiting in the queue. This mightn't sound much back home, but here this was a series of miraculous provisions. We were standing in the rain in the driveway stunned. And thankful!

We've talked to a number of farmers since being here and it's a very tense time for them. We've also been told forty hotel/lodges, the ones with arable land, have had their land occupied so of course no-one will come and stay although the accommodation itself has not been taken over. That bit of information, I don't think, has reached our shores. This has not been violent, we add, but is very, very tense.

The main attraction in the Masvingo area we stopped at for two nights en route from Mozambique, are the Zimbabwe Ruins. It's a world heritage site and awesome to walk / climb through. Because our vehicle was in dock, it was 4pm before we could get there yesterday, and raining, but we took a guided tour and ended up tramping all over the place in the dark and wet. It was so surreal… We paid $A7 for a personal guided tour (we were the ONLY visitors to use a guide the whole day - the crisis here has killed tourism dead). Two training female guides came along. The paths to the King's mountain-top enclosure are very, very steep and one of the girls was wearing smooth based sandals! The two trainees were both committed Christians, as was the park ranger. We are staggered how often the Lifeline sign on the vehicle is recognised! The security man at our lodge proudly told us he is completing the Lifeline correspondence course at present! And our head waiter has asked us for a Bible and correspondence material. That's what makes Zimbabwe such a joy to travel about in. So many of the ordinary people have a deep love for our Jesus and a hunger to grow in their understanding.

I (Brian) talked to our guide about cost of living - he earns $Z2500/month (= $A104), gets accomm. but no food. His wife and child are 2 ^1/₂ bus trip away and he spends $Z480 each weekend going there and back. This leaves him the princely sum of $Z600 PER MONTH to live on…. That's $A28! Less than we would spend often on a meal for two. Tipping is not an option here for a believer, it's a compulsion. As so many of these we have met are fellow believers. (top of page)  

LATER UPDATE FROM BULAWAYO We tried to send this last update from Masvingo but the "Internet café" wouldn't take it! The power blew up again and my (battery-powered) notebook was the only thing working in the shop! Happens all the time they said…. 

We have just finished the second Doulos program and are staying in Bulawayo with George Moyo, speaking in his church later today. Brian's cold turned to a badly infected throat and he finished his material in considerable pain, with virtually no voice at all. If delivery counted for anything, the students would have gotten nothing out of it! But they did. They called Elizabeth, Momma Elizabeth! She took the 10 young women attending in separate sessions and they loved it! More secret women's business. Honestly, the Zimbabwean people are the most warm hearted saints we have ever met. They get into your heart so quickly.

War vets invaded a farm nearby two months ago and folks are nervous. We pulled into town late last night to find the neighbour of our host was invaded by robbers the night before while she was home alone. They cut through the razor wire, the window bars, and glass, then stripped the house of virtually everything while the poor woman locked herself in her bedroom. Can you imagine what this does to people's nerves here??? Praise God we found more diesel too. Enough to get us to our next course 480 kms away, and then back to Harare. We are sleeping in our TENTH bed since leaving our own. The last were shockers. You have to feel called to do this stuff in this part of the world… 

We had a marvellous time in a four hour service today with George Moyo's church in Bulawayo. They meet out in a "township" area. 300 people jammed in a large simple hall. and did they sing! Brian preached/croaked his way through (they found a PA system just to help him out), and the interpreter seemed to take forever to translate what he was saying. It turned out he was translating into TWO languages - one after the other. This is brilliant! But nobody told us… Shona and Ndebele. And praise God for mercies again - we saw a small queue at a diesel station way out near the township and only had to queue for 10 minutes to fill up again with diesel. Mavis Ford rang to say Harare is totally out of diesel at present. Our hearts went out to a queue of people standing in the dark to obtain a 5 litre can of paraffin for their cooking. The queue was at least three hours long - no kidding. (top of page)  

AFTER THIRD DOULOS SERIES AT BANKET - we have been very pressed for time by the intensity of the three week travelling and training schedule here. The chair I am sitting on to type this was borrowed a few days ago for a large funeral right here of a white commercial farmer who was murdered by robbers. This wasn't political, but the lawlessness from the top is filtering right down and everywhere we have been people report increased lawlessness. Now we have just arrived back in Harare after three weeks of travel to teach in three Doulos leadership training courses at Beira (Mozambique), 900 km west to Bulawayo, then 500 km north to Banket (in the heart of a commercial farming area). We have been updating this by the wonders of modern communications in the heart of Africa, on our missions trip to Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Beira still smells like no other place here! And there has been a major crisis there at present, what with the floods and disturbances. You can follow it on our home church's webpage. Pray for us and the Lifeline team there, who are helping rebuild storm damaged homes.

Our time in Zimbabwe and Mozambique so far has been an exciting time of catching up with old friends and making new ones too. We have already been ministering by candlelight (no electricity in the church), doing extended equipping sessions with a good turnout of local pastors in Beira for three days straight. We then drove the Lifeline 4WD 900 km to Bulawayo, stopping at Mutare Vumba hills (devastated by 260 km/hr cyclone in Feb), Masvingo (where we survived a major engine problem and no diesel for three weeks at the garage the vehicle was being fixed at - to be miraculously given 50 litres in 2 cans to get us to Bulawayo!). 

Our sessions in all three programs were well received; an election takes place the day we fly out and the country is bracing itself… The (boarding) school one of our host's son attends is closing and sending all students and teachers home indefinitely, because of concerns for the safety of the teachers. Hard to imagine this if you have only known Aussie elections! Brian's material got reworked as we went along, as we tried to make it relevant to each differing group of students. Quite a few pastors attended as well as younger developing leaders.

Brian's vocal chords became badly infected in the second series and he was in great pain for a week. Could barely whisper, and was saved by a PA system being brought in for the third series. Thank God that the important thing in ministry is the CONTENT rather than the style or delivery of the teacher!

Elizabeth adds; what a lovely place this Banket is. It is a rich agricultural area so in spite of the present economic difficulties, people here are able to grow food for their staple diet - maize (they call it mealie). That's the advantage of living in the country. Most mornings we've walked and prayed along various local tracks, though we seem to spend a lot of our time saying "Hello" and "Good Morning". These rural folk are very friendly and we feel very safe here. It's an interesting thing that although many in the village live in 'third-world conditions', they don't seem unduly distressed or unhappy - in fact, the many children you see on the roads and in the yards are happily playing with whatever. No sophisticated toys here! The one thing that reminds you that all is not well is the high electrified fences surrounding the commercial farms.

This Doulos program is being held in a restored hotel in the centre of this little town where Loxley and the students are staying. A local Christian farmer bought the property some years ago and has made it available to Lifeline for a reasonable sum. Brian and I are guests in the home of the local senior pastor who lives in the village 20 minutes walk away. Each day there are five sessions - very heavy going on Brian's voicebox.

rust coloured sunrise (typical)

rusty couple (typical)

Pastors at Doulos (Thomas travelled 200 km each day).

16/6 FROM HARARE We have returned to Harare after the very moving end of the last Doulos series. A wonderful communion time and honest heart-searching discussion about the way forward for us all as leaders of God's people.

The locals have taken to calling Elizabeth - Momma Elizabeth; and it has stuck! They are such an affectionate people. The highlight of each of the 15 session series I have done in each course has been my illustration of what every culture considers "normal" in a friendly, brotherly greeting. I do an exegesis on "greet one another with a brotherly kiss", then ask the young women if they feel comfortable when the young men quote this Scripture to them as justification for a smooch. They look aghast. Then we do a look at differing cultures view of the "normal" way to greet one another in a warm brotherly way.

We start with the Zimbabwean way - a lingering holding of hands (they gasp when I tell them they would be suspected in Australia of being homosexual); then British - formal handshake and crisp greeting; then how Archpriest Khoury (Assyrian Orthodox) nearly crushed me, at home once, in a bear hug and massive kiss on both cheeks with his bushy beard (they can't handle that style at all!); then we do Italians, with lots of shouting and crying and hugging and kissing. I pick a different person to act each out. They gag at this. But the best one is the Kiwi Maori way - they just can't handle rubbing noses!!!

Then we do the hermeneutic - what is the best way we can interpret this NT verse into our current culture and retain the essence - ie. warm, brotherly affectionate greeting? They have the point by then. Then we can do a number on legalism and its Biblical flaws. This has been an effective way of deepening their ability to "correctly handle the word of truth", which is what is notoriously lacking in parts of the church in Africa. All sorts of weird teachings get promoted by leaders. 

One pastor told us when he was interviewed by the chief apostle of ZAoGA (not your average AoG organisation) he was told he would have to walk on his knees across the room and kneel before him the whole time. This group also teaches their followers (1 million in Zimbabwe alone) must use the Archbishop's name to act as an advocate when they pray through Jesus. My friend (an ex-RC priest) couldn't get out quick enough!. (top of page)  

Trip to Mana Pools Game Reserve on the Zambezi River (Zambia border) (Elizabeth reports) This update comes from Harare where we are again staying with friends. We have come back today from Mana Pools, a National Park some six hours' drive north-west of Harare. We managed to secure sufficient diesel to get us up there, drive around this remarkable game park over four days, and back into this city. We stayed in a large two-bedroom thatched cottage on the edge of a pool on the Zambezi River, with the mountains of Zambia looking like 'folded blankets' as a backdrop - paradise. It was a most relaxing time and after three weeks of being on the go, Brian's health improved remarkably. We were surrounded by wildlife in unprotected surroundings and had our own VERY scary moment when out walking we came unexpectedly across a lone bull buffalo sitting in the scrub. We had only moments before been discussing how an acquaintance of mine (who I met in l991 when she was a YWAM worker in Beira, Mozambique) had been killed by a buffalo in this very same park and area two days into her honeymoon, after they walked into one in the scrub unexpectedly! Needless to say Brian gripped my arm in a vice and we made a very hasty retreat ((as in, ran for our lives into a gully). The bull rose to its feet, but didn't charge. That was our last attempt to go walking in the park unaccompanied. We did go on a three hour trek a couple of days later with a National Park guide armed with an AK47. At one point later in the day, he actually unlocked the safety catch when a very angry male elephant threatened to charge the Land Rover our hosts' family was sitting on top of (on a viewing platform). The children were terrified! Oh yes, they call this fun!

Highlight of the 4 day trip - a 40km round trip over a very rough safari track with very little game, until we eased down into a dry river bed and saw a leopard cub staring down at us from behind a tree. It came out, quite unafraid, and watched us for 10 minutes before its mother called it back into the bush. We also saw lots of hippo (walking right past our lodge), eland, impala, elephants, baboons, monkeys, mongoose, squirrels, zebra, warthog, crocs, buffalo, waterbuck, some bushbuck, kudu, a cheetah (walked past our BBQ on dusk), not to mention being kept awake at night by the racket the lions made, hyena tipping our garbage bins over every night, the grunting of hippos (worse than Brian's snoring), and the vast array of birdlife - from eagles to enormous hornbills. Truly, an assault on the senses!

We now have a couple of days to ready ourselves for our trip to the U.K. where we will spend a few days with my step-father, John Curtis, and his family in Cornwall before linking up with Lifeline's supporting church in London. We plan to stay with Anna Jarvis' parents and of course we're looking forward to seeing her again. It's a year since she left us in Sydney. Brian will speak at a local Lifeline supporting church here in Harare on Sunday. The pastor, Innocent Makwarimba, attended the last Doulos course, and invited us to come and address his congregation. We are much happier going there than to the more American-style church that some of the Lifeline people took us to four weeks ago. We could have been anywhere in Nth America, or Aussie. The indigenous Zimbabwean churches have a particular vitality we love to be in touch with! (top of page)  

Election Fever! G'day, folks. A short update you might find interesting. It's after 11pm, and we have just returned from a "township" in the high density area of Harare. It's the eve of the elections and the streets are deserted of cars and pedestrians. That is really unusual here as there are ALWAYS people walking about. It's on edge everywhere. We prayed the whole way over there and back. At the meeting we spoke at, I was just closing in prayer when a couple of truckloads of party supporters drove past the church meeting place (which is a front yard of one brother's house covered in asbestos sheeting and open on the sides and street). Others were walking beside the vehicles. They were chanting slogans in Shona and making a lot of racket. We were really tense wondering if they would trash the place. Afterwards at dinner, one of the leaders mentioned they were MDC supporters and had shouted out, "please pray for us!" I just wish someone had told us what was going on at the time! Would have saved us some very anxious faith-filled moments…

Today is our last day of driving around in the Lifeline vehicle, as tomorrow it has been recommended no one drive around while people are voting. The USA Embassy warned all Americans to stay of the streets tonight and the weekend. We have never been in a situation like this before and value everyone's prayers. Just in case. British Air told us they have moved our departure time forward by 9 hours as they no longer stop over in Zimbabwe. They touch down, disembark, board new passengers and take off again ASAP. All this in such a beautiful land with such a high percentage of Jesus loving people. We love it here and love the people.

All this makes the perils, risks, and hardships of ministry in Oz appear tame! It's weird being here - such a mixture of emotions and reactions, but we are so glad to be here and a part of what is going on. And as we update this at 6am on our last day here, we still wonder why every single day here we have woken up before dawn, regardless of what time we have gone to bed. Makes for a vitalised prayer life! (And the value of an afternoon kip when you can get it!). Lastly from Africa - thanks to all those who have persistently been praying for us - we have sure felt the benefit of faithful, loving friends. (top of page)

TRAVELS WITH BRIAN AND DES IN 1999
My friend Des and I are on a coach travelling from Harare to Bulawayo in Central Zimbabwe. We have been involved in a series of training programs for national pastoral and leadership development. Last week, we were in Mozambique in very different circumstances. The effects of the 17 year long war that ended in 1992 are still very evident there, whereas Zimbabwe is now suffering an economic collapse through cronyism at a high level. I thought perhaps you might be a little interested in the differences between ministering in our part of the world and Africa! So I have attached part of the updates we have been sending home to our church in Greystanes. 

Things happen that are very funny from our cultural perspective, while other things bring a sober reminder this is a very dangerous place to live. Even if you don't look at the others, scroll to update #6. That was one of the most horrible experiences of my entire life. 

To Everyone back home Update #1 The phone system in Zimbabwe is a mess nowadays, so we are taking the opportunity to send some stuff out at Lifeline House. You know the next bit, "this email is never sent unsolicited. Return with Unsubscribe on the subject line, and we promise never, never to harass or bore you again" (I spoke too soon. The analogue system spat my email out and I am now resending it from Beira the following Tuesday…). Things have reverted to something near normal in Harare. It's quite safe on the streets again. Although Des learned real quick yesterday that you don't act too friendly to the street stall hawkers. One hounded him for ages after he spoke pleasantly to him! We are staying with Dave and Jen Hess, who stayed with us in Sydney for 10 days back in 1993. They have been so gracious to us. Des's (clean, drying) undies disappeared from our room. He was a bit reticent in allowing them to be washed (and ironed!) by a strange woman. But Harriet would have been really offended if he did his own washing….. She washed, dried, and ironed them all over again! I want to know if he is going to take this part of African culture back and try to get Pam onto this system!!!!???? We had to pay $US30 ($A46) each at the airport to get in (it's still like something out of Casablanca!). Dave Hess dropped us off in the queue outside the Mozambique embassy at 7.45am to apply for our visas on Friday. We got near the counter and realised we had both left our extra passport-sized photos at Hess's. Des raced down the street and paid $A15 for a set! Ripped off. Welcome to street dealing! Back in the queue, handing over the $Z850 each ($A34 - another rip-off), in $US when the official says abruptly, "no $US accepted, only $Z!". I also found my Mozambique visa was out of date, and I too had to go and find a photographer nearby. Only paid $A4 for mine, but…. wait for it…. (this is Africa!) didn't notice it ain't Polaroid - you have to wait for it to be developed! Then, after going to the bank for $Z cash, we raced back to the embassy to find the queue now nearly out the door. We sat in line for 2 hours talking with the locals. It was hilarious! The guy behind us was a Branhamite who belonged to the "pure Branham church, which practises polygamy". We went round the mountain with him. Most entertaining (he was 26 and didn't even have one wife, let alone a harem!). Then a fat lady pushed into the queue and lots of people started arguing in Shona…. She was so aggressive she ignored them all and no one knew what to do then. Then we had to come back at 4pm, form a queue again and wait for the visas to be passed out. By now we were old friends with several locals, all patiently suffering the agonies of Mozambicans' love of red tape! And Des is learning what we meant by time being reckoned by the sun being between the horizon and middle of the sky! (Stop laughing, Philip….. I can hear you from here). Des was surprised at the number of locals are genuine Christians. We experienced a wonderful service last night at the Sheraton Concert hall. It seats over 4000 and was full. Our hosts son-in-law led the praise time. They sang in English and sometimes in Shona for an hour or more. You haven't seen anything until you see a three-parts African congregation swaying to the music, dancing and waving large banners, and cheering like an AFL crowd! They love God and aren't afraid to show it. Tomorrow, we drive down to Beira in Mozambique, on the coast 600 km away. They tell us the road is improved, and only sections of it are very rough now (there was a 30cm drop between the seal and the bridge deck at the Pungwe river after the floods two years ago - did wonderful things to vehicles from ends in the dark!). We just had a report that man eating lions are currently active only 10 km from Inhaminga, where Elizabeth, Philip and I went two years ago… It looks like we won't get time to go up the track/road to there this trip. What a pity….. They found some fingers on the track…. That's all. 

Update #2 Now we have arrived in Beira after a long dusty trip on the hwy which is being extensively rebuilt above the flood level. You might laugh reading this! It's 6pm and I'm sitting in the dark with a paraffin lamp for light to type this on my battery-powered computer! The power went off an hour after we arrived and has stayed off. This is the first time it's gone off and stayed off for a long time. At least that's what they tell us…. Had a long time of prayer here tonight after dinner by candlelight. Power is still off at 8.30. There was a major in-house theft of money while the Smiths were in Harare while Edmore was in charge. There are no guests here tonight, so we prayed extensively for the situation to become clear. They spent time with the police earlier. The most serious aspect was the disappearance of an office key that will require a major lock change. We have definitely come here in God's good timing. Tomorrow we are spending time with the staff in a study / encouragement session for two hours. We are painting in the afternoon. Then on Thurs/Fri/Sat we do all morning sessions with 35 national pastors. And two night services at the church of one of the main leaders. 

Update #3 This visit is very different from the last one. I have just finished quite an exhausting morning of teaching with local pastors (about 30 of them). Many of them oversee several congregations. They are all well dressed; some of them travelled for hours to get here, although most of them live in Beira Des preached last night at a small Church in downtown slums of Beira. By candlelight! He had a tiny podium which held two candles, and he had to be careful not to let the wax fall on the open pages! Could they sing! Vandals had stolen chairs and some of the wooden strips off the benches. The Zimbabwe Consul for Sofala Province was present. Yesterday, Des installed some deadlocks for Martin, after their robbery while they were up in Harare last week. An inside job. One of the workers. They narrowed it down to three possible suspects. Martin reported it to the police yesterday. The police rounded up two of them, took them in for questioning with Martin present, and then beat them mercilessly with batons on the floor. Martin came back so upset he was weeping. He had pleaded with the police not to, but they said this is the way we deal with things in Mozambique. There is a very unusual weather pattern over Beira at present. It has rained the past two nights, and is much cooler than the last visit (same month). Des and I got soaked this morning when we were out praying up the beach road . I prepared the upstairs lounge section for repainting yesterday. And will bog and seal it today. Beira has changed quite a lot in two years. Shops are starting to appear. Even a supermarket is being built! (The area only has i million people!). Although the Lifeline people still drive to Mutare and back to do a big grocery shop for the House once a month (it's 600 km round trip). Even the road is improving, and the shapperzays (local small buses) aren't such wrecks! Houses are starting to be painted; a hotel has been opened, and the old cinema has been restored! There are plenty of mossies around however. The humid weather seems to have brought them out. There's another wreck just up the road. A Japanese fishing boat ran aground just up the road, in a cyclone two months ago, and there it's gonna stay! There are people already living on the wreck! As the surf whacks into it! Tonight, our hosts showed us the video of "The Ghost and the Darkness", a true story set in Kenya of two man-eating lions that terrorised a railway bridge building operation at the turn of the century. We're sleeping with the doors locked tonight! Des and I hope you are all well, and taking nothing for granted in our wonderful country. It is true that you have to travel to the third world to truly appreciate our way of life, and opportunities. 

Update #4 Had a great time in a sweaty jam packed room this morning. They literally sang some 12 items! The worship was in 4 languages and was glorious! There are many educated people in this particular church, which is unusual in such a humble building. There were overflow congregations in two other rooms! So a second interpreter stood behind me and shouted into the back room after the first spoke in Portuguese into the main room. Yesterday I took Des walking all along the beach to the shipping graveyard. For one kilometre the beach was covered in turds! There has also been a bad oil spill on the same beach and crude oil has covered much of the low water area. There are some ship wrecks I couldn't remember. We were the only white people in the district and one girl ran beside us shouting mockingly, 'whitey, whitey!' I am reporting her to Charles Perkins when I get home. The Grand Hotel still stinks. We accidently found where they all use as a toilet - in the park over the road behind it. On the concrete paths! Everywhere! Piles of turds! In the street! With signs of urban renewal everywhere, we can't understand why the Municipality doesn't build large basic public dunnies as there is really nowhere for the street people to go... 

Update #5 Greetings all the way from beautiful downtown Beira, where the onshore wind wafts those delectable odours away…. Des and I are sitting up in bed at 5am, coz neither of us are asleep. It's a mild tropical night, and the dogs have finally stopped barking outside our open window. Even the mossies have decided it's time to quit. So we have lifted our skirts (mossie nets) and bared our hairy legs to a malaria-infested environment for yet another day! We have two more Ministry Training sessions this morning, from 9 to 12. Des has excelled himself here in what he has ministered. The locals love him! He is a "great father with nine children" so he must be of God. There have been 35 local ministers gathering daily. Many of them oversee multiple churches, but they are very humble men who are keen to learn. We feel quite inadequate among them, as they have been very effective servants of Christ. I caught up with João Madeira yesterday. João interpreted for Philip, Elizabeth, and me last time. He is now working for Feed the Hungry (a ministry our youth group would be at home with!). They are teaching him some computer skills, and he is finally earning a decent wage (by Mozambique standards that is). He is coming to the training sessions today (Sat). We were even able to walk together around the corner to a Portuguese coffee shop! With excellent coffee and a pastry! Well, yeah, they had run out of milk, but this is Mozambique! It cost me all of 27,000 metacais (that's "meta-ky-s, or megabytes, as Philip called them!). Before you fall on the floor at these outrageous prices, it came to $A3….. Early Monday we drive up to the Zimbabwe border (300 km) where Martin and Debbie will buy more groceries, and come home again ("I'm just nicking down to Yass for the groceries, dear, shouldn't be more than 2 days!" Hmmm. We are spoiled, aren't we?…. Des and I catch a bus then back to Harare (another 300 km), stay overnight and then catch another bus to Bulawayo, where we do another 4 day training course with ministers / leaders from the Matabele part of Zimbabwe. (Sat 1pm) We finished today with much joy among the leaders. I told them the British origins of the all-powerful tie and they went into hysterics. I borrowed one, wore it and then blindfolded myself for execution. We had just finished a any-questions free-for-all. This is much different from the last trip. God has really used Martin and Debbie to build cross-cultural bridges, and we have had the privilege of crossing over that bridge. 

Update #6 We had the most horrific experience today - 100 km from the Mozambique - Zimbabwe border we drove over a bridge slowly passing a woman staggering about on the Hwy apparently very drunk (the hwys here have people walking beside them everywhere). To our absolute horror, we saw her flesh was covered with African killer bees and they were stinging her to death. I am still shaken 12 hours later. This is a cursed continent. You wear bare feet and they warn you even the ground has worms that hook onto your soles and burrow into your skin to lay eggs. Your washing must all be ironed to stop a fly egg hatching into a parasite that breaks you out in boils. You swim in the rivers and river worm penetrates your skin and eats into your liver and eyeballs. It goes on and on. An African in a ute pulled up alongside her, windows up, as she lay on the ground screaming, and urged her to fall onto the tray. He couldn't get out and one of our party was stung 20 times 100 metres before he got to her; there were swarms of them all over the place. It was terrifying. We were killing bees in the Landrover. But no one else got stung. We could only pray. She staggered up several times and finally fell on the back of the ute, which took off; the driver got out further up the road to help her, was attacked, and jumped back in again, heading off at speed to a town 5 kms away which had some medical help. Whether she lived, we don’t know. The local missionary doubted she could survive the power of the stings. They are very different from our bees. This isn't a fun letter entirely, is it? But it's life for these people, and it stirs my heart afresh to serve them.‹

this poor woman was being stung continually by killer bees

Mutare farewell - Brian, Beira American, Des, Edmore

Update #7 We have spent the last four days enduring sub-zero night temperatures and pleasant 23 deg. days some 5000' ASL 30 km south of Bulawayo on a YFC camp site with 20 pastors from all over Zimbabwe. This is part of their Doulos Training Course. They meet for two weeks five times a year for intensive study and training. Many are in their mid-20's and have already pioneered churches. An AoG minister has joined us from Manchester. He can't believe how cold it is as soon as the sun goes down! 

Update #8 I am sitting in a very, very slow train 30 km out of Harare which is running 1 1/2 hours late. Des and I are sharing a second class sleeper with 3 other African men overnight from Bulawayo to Harare. It has been a trip to remember! Why? Well the carriages are all 45 years old; it's squashed, but actually quite comfortable. Except… we are sitting (reclining, lying down, sitting up again) right over an axle or wheel that is out of round! It has a flat spot on it, which has clacked away at about 95 decibels all night! No one got much sleep.

We finished our part of the Doulos Training series Saturday 30km out of Bulawayo, in Southern Zimbabwe. Des and the minister from the UK (who has never been here before either) spent yesterday in Matopos NP, which is a refuge for white and black rhinos. The signs say all people on foot will be shot on sight, and they mean it. Since they shot dead two poachers, no more rhinos have been killed. Des tells me the registered guide walked them through a rhino trail (he's licensed to walk) and they came to within 12m of a large white rhino. After Des and the rhino compared schnozzles, the rhino conceded and they agreed not to charge each other.

Meanwhile, being the spiritual and faithful one (nahh. I said to Des if you have come this far and don't get to see any wild life in its own setting, it would be a travesty!), I stayed at the Training centre for our last time together in a very powerful communion and worship time. We prayed for several who had never exercised in the gifts of the Spirit before. Some very significant declarations came forth about the future of this country and the rôle the next generation of Zimbabwean Christians would play. One young man (Rayman) had a vision that was very biblical and powerful. All this from such quietly spoken young adults!

We met up with Loxley Ford, the Lifeline Director for Sthn Africa and George Moyo - a former Catholic priest, who was baptised in the Holy Spirit while still a parish priest. One of the senior Church leaders tried to have him killed (this is not uncommon in this culture - it extends from the top in politics and some churches and tribal systems). Last night, over dinner, he told us about an ambush during the Zimbabwe war (early 1980's) when Nkomo's soldiers murdered two priests on their mission station; George was having a bath and escaped! They returned later and lined him and several nuns up for execution, when an outside disturbance made them leave in a hurry. George sent 10 of his developing leaders (6 young men and 4 young women) to the Doulos course. They are planting churches out from Bulawayo and they are only in their mid-20's.

Just before we left Harare, our dear friends there took us to a lion and cheetah park 30 km out where they have several magnificent rare black-maned Cape lions. They are full-grown, very large, and quite magnificent in the typical Zimbabwean setting of rocky granite outcrops, bush and long grass. 

I hope you have got something from what we've emailed the past three weeks. Our Zimbabwean friends warned us if you come back here you will come to deeply love the land and its people. The Shona and Matabele people are like that. When you greet one another they will hold your hand for 3-5 minutes as a sign of welcome and affection. When they come to Christ, this rich side of their culture translates very easily into genuine christian fellowship. Des and I have loved it! I would have loved to bring home a bunch of them to sing God's praises their way.  [top of page]